New series: From the Collection

Rosa Doherty

In this new monthly series, From the Collection will showcase the work that the Rosenstaff does to ensure the long-term safety, security, preservation, and interpretation of our world-renowned rare books, manuscripts, artworks, and decorative-art artifacts. Sent our via a monthly newsletter and featured on our blog, this series will highlight the work that the team has undertaken in previous weeks on “Stewardship Mondays.”

“Stewardship Mondays” were created last summer in order to devote a worktime each and every week to the physical tasks necessary for collection care, from conducting inventories on collections to engaging in preventive conservation work and managing collections information systems. To follow along each week, find the #StewardshipMonday hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.

A “game of Tetris” as the Collections team moved paintings and other framed works of art into storage in preparation for building work on our roof and windows.
Associate Curator Alexander Ames holds a painting inspired by Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop.
Registrar Jobi Zink removing artwork from its frame so that the team could examine the piece’s support.
Associate Curator Alexander Ames and Assistant Librarian Nancy Loi in the Reading Room inventorying the Rosenbach’s prints collection
Curator and Senior Director of Collections Judy Guston examining the support for an original watercolor
The Rosenbach’s Collections team on a day spent updating 40 exterior box labels and inventorying 9 boxes of prints and drawings.
A sketch of Dr. Rosenbach accompanied by Lewis Carroll’s Alice characters encountered by Alex Ames during prints inventory. From our librarian Elizabeth Fuller: “The artist, Jack Leslie, was 12 years old when his father, Sir Shane Leslie, brought Dr. Rosenbach to visit their home Castle Leslie at Glaslough, County Monaghan. Dr. R had just bought the Alice manuscript and Shane was leading him on a trip to visit Irish people with ancestral libraries to sell.”

Learn more about working with museum collections in our hands-on course: The Curator’s Toolkit

Have you ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes at The Rosenbach? Curious to know how we get an object behind glass for an exhibition? In this interactive course taught by The Rosenbach’s Collections Department, you’ll learn the skills for studying, handling, and preserving the fine art, antiques, rare books, and manuscripts in our collection. Scholarships are available!

10 Tuesday sessions from 6:00-8:30 p.m. EST. 9/13, 9/20, 10/4, 10/11, 10/18, 10/25, 11/15, 11/29, 12/6, 12/13.

Learn more.

Interested to hear Collections staff reflect on their work with objects?  Check out the following episodes of The Rosenbach Podcast:

The Celtic Muse: Afternoon Tea, Scones, and Celtic Harp with Dr. Alexander Lawrence Ames

Parlor Talk: Exploring the History and Collections of The Rosenbach with Judith M. Guston, Curator & Director of Collections at The Rosenbach

Live from the Reading Room: Studying Rare Books and Manuscripts with Elizabeth E. Fuller, Librarian of The Rosenbach